Theoretical Girls

Before we continue with the post Ultramarine narrative this seems like a good time to feature these compilations and Acute Records, home of The Lines since the turn of the century.

I think it was in 2002 that I first heard from Dan Selzer. He had started up a label called Acute Records. I checked out the first releases: Theoretical Girls, Glenn Branca, The Fire Engines. Way to lay your cool cards on the table.

I have to admit that by this time, although me and the guys had remained dearest of friends as we are to this day, we thought that everyone else had forgotten our band and we’d been erased from history. Dan’s passion and knowledge took us by surprise. We were happy to get on board. The master tapes were located, baked and dubbed. Apart from a few slight drop-outs and stretches they were in good shape.

I did a bit of pre-mastering through my modern multi-band compression plugins. It was spooky to hear our youthful selves bursting out of the speakers. Most of the tracks featured in the last few weeks of this blog were included on these compilations.

Dan did a fantastic job on the packaging and with the aid of the good folks from Carpark Records our oeuvre was once more released to the public, this time with a markedly kinder reception. For a band like us, I don’t think it gets any better than a 4-star review from Jon Savage in Mojo. Even our one bad review was good, in that it accused us of ripping off a band that didn’t exist yet, which is quite a compliment.